10 thoughts - Titans game

[Gandhi]

1 – Isaiah Simmons obviously played great in the preseason, but now he was also a playmaker in a regular season game. I think he can be even better, but this is much closer to what I expected when the Cards drafted him.

2 – Addiction is a dangerous thing, but it seemed like they got the penalties out of their system in the first quarter.

3 - The guys in white jerseys are some of the best athletes in the world. No, seriously.

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4 – Marco Wilson more than held his own (while playing 95% of all defensive snaps).

5 – There must be some sort of team executive that can order someone to stop the cheerleaders from cheering in the fourth quarter. At best it seems strange. At worst it seems like provoking their own fans.

6 – I am very excited about the duo of Chase Edmonds and James Connor.

7 – When was the Cards last in a position to play their backups in the fourth quarter? (I actually think I can answer that myself - @ Cleveland, 2019? – but you get the point.)

8 – Give Vance Joseph credit. Come on, ASFN, give Vance Joseph credit.

9 – Chandler Jones’ sack dance from the previous seasons was gone.

10 – Kyler Murray had the third longest time to throw out of any quarterback yesterday. #KudosOLine



I usually have 15 thoughts in this column, but it simply takes too much time to write them, so to make it work, I will try to keep going with only 10 thoughts.

 

[Shane]

Good stuff and yes VJ needs a ton of credit

 

[QuebecCard]

Good stuff and yes VJ needs a ton of credit

He doesn't "need" it.... but, I'm sure it's appreciated.

 

[Arz101]

Agreed. Vance Joseph should get a game ball.

 

[slanidrac16]

This is the first game that I can remember where there was pretty much nothing negative to talk about.
Nit picking missed fg, penalties and burnt timeouts didn’t cost us a game. Inspire of those issues we dominated every phase of the game.

Now, let’s see how we adjust to how our opponents adjust after they view our tape. We had 4 months to prepare for this game. How do we prepare week to week.

Right now that’s not important . Enjoy this victory and then get ready for Viqueens.

 

[Vacard]

3. Yes they are among the best, most conditioned athletes in the world but KM is on another level and why he was taken number one overall. That’s generational talent.

 

[Cheesebeef]

that Kyler play is so ridiculous. this team FINALLY has the type of athletic FREAKSHOW that can single-handedly drive defenses crazy. And he's only going to get better.

I'd say the entire city of Phoenix has never had a player with this much potential. Amare with the Suns pre-microfracture was close, but having that possible level player at QB? It could change the entire narrative of the franchise for the next decade.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

This is the first game that I can remember where there was pretty much nothing negative to talk about.
Nit picking missed fg, penalties and burnt timeouts didn’t cost us a game. Inspire of those issues we dominated every phase of the game.

Now, let’s see how we adjust to how our opponents adjust after they view our tape. We had 4 months to prepare for this game. How do we prepare week to week.

Right now that’s not important . Enjoy this victory and then get ready for Viqueens.

Always an issue with this team and must be addressed

Better teams will make us pay for these

 

[CardNots]

11 - no major injuries

12 - Zaven, play count watch underway

 

[BigDavis75]

Don’t worry I was doing chandlers sack dance to celebrate so it’s alive and well

 

[Zeem_Freeze]

Don’t worry I was doing chandlers sack dance to celebrate so it’s alive and well

same. whole living room I watched with played the guitar 5 times on Sunday

 

[Krangodnzr]

that Kyler play is so ridiculous. this team FINALLY has the type of athletic FREAKSHOW that can single-handedly drive defenses crazy. And he's only going to get better.

I'd say the entire city of Phoenix has never had a player with this much potential. Amare with the Suns pre-microfracture was close, but having that possible level player at QB? It could change the entire narrative of the franchise for the next decade.

This is what I saw when I switched to Team Murray before the Cardinals drafted him.

Yes he's a tremendous athlete, but I was and am, more impressed with his arm.

Plus the kid really cares about winning. Sure he looks all surly and pouts when things aren't going well, but its because he really cares. Remember Derek Anderson? Laughing on the sideline? We'd never see Murray do that.

Listening to Bickely, you'd think Murray was a total headache, but watching him during the last Flight Plan, you see that the anti-Murray narrative is manufactured.

Murray is already a top 3 Cardinals QB, and I think we can say he's probably going to be better than Palmer ever was in a Cardinals uniform. I'd say he is very likely to be the best ever soon from what we've seen.

Murray is a double outlier, too short and only one year of college experience. I think height is overblown, but the lack of experience has limited him somewhat. He is now probably, experience wise, where he'd be as a 2nd year starter in the NFL. I expect to see him get better this year.

 

[slanidrac16]

Always an issue with this team and must be addressed

Better teams will make us pay for these

No doubt. But after a 25 pt. Road victory it’s hard to dwell on negatives at this point.

 

[Vacard]

This is what I saw when I switched to Team Murray before the Cardinals drafted him.

Yes he's a tremendous athlete, but I was and am, more impressed with his arm.

Plus the kid really cares about winning. Sure he looks all surly and pouts when things aren't going well, but its because he really cares. Remember Derek Anderson? Laughing on the sideline? We'd never see Murray do that.

Listening to Bickely, you'd think Murray was a total headache, but watching him during the last Flight Plan, you see that the anti-Murray narrative is manufactured.

Murray is already a top 3 Cardinals QB, and I think we can say he's probably going to be better than Palmer ever was in a Cardinals uniform. I'd say he is very likely to be the best ever soon from what we've seen.

Murray is a double outlier, too short and only one year of college experience. I think height is overblown, but the lack of experience has limited him somewhat. He is now probably, experience wise, where he'd be as a 2nd year starter in the NFL. I expect to see him get better this year.

I’m pro-Murray but I can’t see him standing tall in a collapsing pocket and delivering a strike downfield ala Brady. He’s not meant for that.

 

[TaylorSwift]

Wasnt for the JJ Watt signing, but I may have to eat a plate of delicious crow by midseason.

He opens up everything for everyone else on the defensive front and ensures there are less double teams on Jones.

Really good sign of things to come.

 

[TaylorSwift]

I’m pro-Murray but I can’t see him standing tall in a collapsing pocket and delivering a strike downfield ala Brady. He’s not meant for that.

He can get there.

Brady wasnt this good in his 3rd year. He just was superb at managing the game.

 

[Krangodnzr]

I’m pro-Murray but I can’t see him standing tall in a collapsing pocket and delivering a strike downfield ala Brady. He’s not meant for that.

The concept of the big pocket passer standing in the pocket and being able to see over the lines has always been overblown.

Kurt Warner was known for standing in the pocket and delivering strikes, but even he said that QBs see around linemen, not over them. Thats why sometimes we as fans see open receivers, but the QB can't because he doesn't have a lane to see them.

I just rewatched the highlights and I saw three plays where Murray climbed the pocket and delivered accurate strikes downfield. This is something we didnt see from Murray the past two seasons.

The kid had been working on QB fundamentals. All that nonsense about him not working with a QB coach is obviously false.

 

[Krangodnzr]

Wasnt for the JJ Watt signing, but I may have to eat a plate of delicious crow by midseason.

He opens up everything for everyone else on the defensive front and ensures there are less double teams on Jones.

Really good sign of things to come.

I mean, this is exactly what I thought Watt was going to do. I thought he would improve the overall defense by requiring multiple blockers and being a leader of the unit.

Where I diverged from the pessimism was that the Cardinals were 8-8 last year and they added a HOF talent who is still playing well and had a really good draft.

The Cardinals got better on paper, and when a team is as close as they were to being good, being good on paper usual translates to being better overall.

 

[QuebecCard]

Wasnt for the JJ Watt signing, but I may have to eat a plate of delicious crow by midseason.

He opens up everything for everyone else on the defensive front and ensures there are less double teams on Jones.

Really good sign of things to come.

JJ gets double teamed or he penetrates and either accrue to the defence.

 

[BurqueCardFan]

No doubt. But after a 25 pt. Road victory it’s hard to dwell on negatives at this point.

For us fans that might be true but the coaching staff damn well better be dwelling on the negatives. It's the little details that makes a team great.
Like others have said, those first quarter penalties would have derailed us against a stronger opponent. If that happened against the other 3 teams in our division, that would have probably spiraled into a loss.

 

[Garthshort]

Someone said no major injuries. But, I never saw any news about the Kelvin Beachum injury. Could anyone enlighten me?

 

[Krangodnzr]

Someone said no major injuries. But, I never saw any news about the Kelvin Beachum injury. Could anyone enlighten me?

Rib injury. And Justin Murray has been a decent back up. Honestly, Murray has been one of the better OL back ups the Cardinals have had since they were in the valley.

Beachum will be missed if he has to miss numerous games, but the team will be fine for a game or two.

 

[slanidrac16]

For us fans that might be true but the coaching staff damn well better be dwelling on the negatives. It's the little details that makes a team great.
Like others have said, those first quarter penalties would have derailed us against a stronger opponent. If that happened against the other 3 teams in our division, that would have probably spiraled into a loss.

The coaching staff has already talked about a ton of corrections to be made.
The positive thing was after the penalties debacle in the first quarter we only had 2 penalties after that.
With no preseason I kind of expected a sloppy game. Turned out to be a sloppy 1st quarter.
Let’s hope that continues.

 

[jmt]

Here is some credit for VJ.

 

[Krangodnzr]

1 – Isaiah Simmons obviously played great in the preseason, but now he was also a playmaker in a regular season game. I think he can be even better, but this is much closer to what I expected when the Cards drafted him.

2 – Addiction is a dangerous thing, but it seemed like they got the penalties out of their system in the first quarter.

3 - The guys in white jerseys are some of the best athletes in the world. No, seriously.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

4 – Marco Wilson more than held his own (while playing 95% of all defensive snaps).

5 – There must be some sort of team executive that can order someone to stop the cheerleaders from cheering in the fourth quarter. At best it seems strange. At worst it seems like provoking their own fans.

6 – I am very excited about the duo of Chase Edmonds and James Connor.

7 – When was the Cards last in a position to play their backups in the fourth quarter? (I actually think I can answer that myself - @ Cleveland, 2019? – but you get the point.)

8 – Give Vance Joseph credit. Come on, ASFN, give Vance Joseph credit.

9 – Chandler Jones’ sack dance from the previous seasons was gone.

10 – Kyler Murray had the third longest time to throw out of any quarterback yesterday. #KudosOLine



I usually have 15 thoughts in this column, but it simply takes too much time to write them, so to make it work, I will try to keep going with only 10 thoughts.

1. I think a lot of people on this board have the early 2020 Isaiah Simmons on their brains. Simmons played pretty well over the tail end of 2020 and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a super athletic, smart kid to get better. For all the talk about who would be better, Simmons or Collins, Simmons got the PT and made some plays. I think we'll see Simmons finish with over 100 tackles, 4 interceptions, and 5 sacks. That's an impact LB.

2. I know that it's been a serious issue, but once they got past that early run, penalties weren't a huge factor.

3. Murray is almost always the best athlete on the field. What makes him amazing is that he isn't too shabby of a passer either. He throws a tight spiral and has good accuracy. Look at the spiral on the TD to Hopkins in the endzone!

4. I'm not worried about Marco Wilson. He has shown that he can make plays on the ball and is a superior athlete. Guys like that tend to be pretty good at CB. I've said all offseason that the Cardinals basically plan on crushing their opponents offensive line and forcing them into mistakes....so CB isn't as big an issue this year. I'm excited about the prospects of Murphy and Wilson holding down CB for a few years.

5. I've always thought cheerleaders were just a distraction. Never really cared about them and it wouldn't be a bad thing to remove them all together. I always love seeing Cardinals games where the outcome isn't really in question before the 4th Quarter. Who thought that the Titans could actually come back? I know I didn't, though I was four deep into a six pack of IPA tall boys LOL

6. I'm with you. I think Edmonds is going to be a good all purpose back and that Conner can be the more physical guy. I would bet that we will see some games Edmonds will be hot and some games Conner will be the hot hand.

7. Dallas last year? The probably could have thrown in the backups at the half.

8. Vance is that kind of DC that his defense doesn't always look as effective as it is. The unit was respectable last year. I'm not a fan of his blitz packages, but I think he usually has the team prepared. He's not a bad DC.

9. He had a "show me the money" sack dance. He is now 2nd all time in sacks per game, and I think his game ages well.

10. And he stepped up in the pocket more! Murray has to get better at the fundamentals of QB play. He has already demonstrated that he can get better and he showed that he has made some strides since last year. The skies the limit with K1.